A PANEL gave examples of church growth, during a presentation, introduced by Canon Kate Wharton (Liverpool) as “a chance to have fun encouraging stories” on the Sunday.
A video presentation suggested that the Church was experiencing signs of renewal across a variety of parishes, and that churches that invested in children’s and youth work tended to see growth. It also pointed to a growth in Bible sales, spiritual interest amongst Generation Z, and the “Way UK” social-media initiative, which had reportedly reached five per cent of all 13- to 17-year-olds in England. Social motion often fuelled numerical growth, the Synod heard.
“Growth will not be our achievement, but God’s gift,” Canon Wharton said. It mattered because “it’s our heart’s desire that each single person would come to know the saving love of the Lord Jesus. . . We will try latest things; we are going to step out. . . Lots of things will flourish and bear fruit. Lots is not going to, and that’s OK.”
It was not a contest, she emphasised. An older woman in her congregation, when asking about reports of a “quiet revival” amongst young people coming to faith, had told her: “I’m going to look prayerfully on the brilliant side.”
The Archdeacon for Rural Mission (St Edmundsbury & Ipswich), the Ven. Sally Gaze, told stories of two individuals who had come to faith and joined churches. One, who had volunteered through the pandemic, said: “Knowing that God was behind all of it made all of the difference.” Another had attended a “Top Up Shop” in Ipswich, a foodbank initiative, and was now an evangelist serving as a PCC treasurer.
The Revd Christopher Trundle (London) is the Vicar of Holy Redeemer, Clerkenwell, within the Catholic tradition, which had grow to be a part of the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board’s (SMMIB’s) Hackney and Islington Programme. This had been “really encouraging”, he said, referring to a “frank acknowledgement amongst plenty of clergy in Stepney that quite a lot of our Catholic parishes were a bit fragile”.
Two latest initiatives had been launched: a weekly 5 p.m. sung mass supported by the One Hope project, a Roman Catholic contemporary-worship movement, now attended by between 35 and 45 people, and Night Light, “a time of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and a committed community of individuals praying in church and going out on to the road, inviting people to come back into the church and light-weight a candle”. It was commonplace to ask 100 people into church inside an hour, he said.
SMMIB funding had provided accommodation for a curate and two lay staff. It was “vital that we haven’t sought to dumb down or dilute our tradition. We have really leant into it.” The work was “not big, shiny, impressive”, however it was “really encouraging to see”.
Joel Plant (Leicester), one in every of the Synod’s latest young-adults group, suggested that growth had come through 1300 young voices in termly diocesan listening exercises, to which bishops had to reply. Thirty per cent of UKME individuals who took part within the intercultural worshipping communities’ project within the diocese were under 18, he said. “Are we seeing young people more all for faith? Maybe.”
The Church was definitely seeing “openness and curiosity concerning the Christian faith. They are open to trying prayer and talking about faith, in addition to finding a spot of belonging in several sorts of community.” Young people were in search of “worship experiences that allow them to specific their faith authentically”.
Sam Atkins/Church TimesWill Leeming (Blackburn)
Alistair Bianchi (Durham), the Growing Churches Strategic Lead, celebrated that, after a 19-per-cent decline between 2019 and 2019, the diocese had reported growth of 1 per cent last yr. “The shift is actually significant. We are not any longer in a momentum of decline.” Numbers at churches that had opted to work together with his programme had grown by 11 per cent previously yr, he said. Children’s attendance had grown by five per cent, and by 29 per cent in churches that had received national funding. This followed a diocesan-wide decline of greater than 30 per cent. “Every movement of God may be traced to a kneeling figure,” he said, quoting D. L. Moody
The Revd Fraser Oates (Worcester) served in Redditch, where his church was ten months right into a SMMIB project. He was “aware of a desire for sustainability, not only quick wins”.
The Bishop of Stepney, Dr Joanne Grenfell (Southern Suffragans), agreed that this was “really hard”. But she also had experience in each Portsmouth and Tower Hamlets of church growth being accompanied by giving, and that this had “buoyed up funds” in areas that weren’t wealthy. Giving had been “taught about from the very starting”. Social enterprise had also played an element. She identified a “greater danger of not trying; and what we have now seen in lots of those contexts is the prevailing model of church doesn’t stack up financially.” She acknowledged that, within the poorest communities, the work would never be entirely self-sustaining.
Will Leeming (Blackburn), also a part of the Synod’s young adults’ group, got here from a parish in a really rural area. He had asked his Vicar what the post of churchwarden entailed and had been told “not rather a lot really”. “I even have since discovered after my fourth yr he might need just barely over-exaggerated,” he said, prompting laughter from the ground. He enjoyed his responsibilities and said that young people needed to be involved within the day-to-day running of churches.
The Archdeacon of Lynn, the Ven. Catherine Dobson (Norwich), told several stories of the “amazing” way through which God was at work in her archdeaconry in lots of benefices, before revealing that each one of them were currently in emptiness. “Rural could also be small, but is it beautiful! And God may be found there.” She asked about the way to best support churchwardens and other lay people during vacancies.
Archdeacon Gaze suggested that this group use the emptiness to “discover together who they’re, so, after they write parish profile, it’s accurate”.
The Revd Jody Stowell (London) asked what revitalisation looked like in smaller churches, most of which weren’t supported by central funding, but were “still vital in every sense of the word”.
Dr Grenfell emphasised that not all of the work was “shiny. . . It’s really vital that abnormal churches of all flavours and contexts can find their very own way that God is asking them to mission and growth.” There was a necessity for significantly better partnership, including “focused work around back-office provision that may work across several parishes with economies of scale”.
There was also a necessity for “translation”, she said. “Sometimes, we are able to feel like we’re talking about spreadsheets, outcomes, money. . . If we discuss vision that comes from God, and prayer and communities, and discerning where the Spirit is leading, and paying attention to the work of God, that provides us a set of disciplines that work in several contexts.” She urged people “to not react tribally or viscerally to the language”.
The Revd Dr Sarah Siddique Gill (UKME co-opted), who’s Canon Missioner of Leicester Cathedral, told the Synod: “Small will not be just small. It matters to God. The joy of the gospel will not be reduced in those places. . . The drained bones need their joy, their uplifting, and assurance that God still loves us and is working.”
Canon Martyn Taylor (Lincoln) gave a market-town perspective on SDF projects. His church had planted into two churches in Grantham and Spalding. The former had grown from 20 to 125 people, after 40 people from the planting church had moved there. It was on course to be fully covering its own costs. Spalding had been sent eight people, and the church had grown from 45 to 100, with 15 children. There was “real traction” in market-town planting, he said: was there a national strategy for this?
Sam Atkins/Church TimesCanon Kate Wharton (Liverpool) introduces the session as “a chance to have fun encouraging stories”
Eleanor Motion (Bath & Wells), one other member of the young adults’ group, recalled being ask to assist run a Sunday-school group as a 14-year-old, with a friend. “We were still figuring things out for ourselves and we were expected to guide. That was hard and, looking back, I realise how vital it’s that young individuals are given space to grow and worship not only serve.” It was also vital to think ahead about what would occur when children grew into young adults.
Professor Roy Faulkner (Leicester) expressed concern that “isolated SDF [Strategic Development Funding] success stories” had been “cherry picked, without considering the general picture”.
William Woolley (Southwell & Nottingham) said that there was “improbable news” of growth, including his wife’s work as a children and families employee, but that much of the discussion was about supporting clergy; lay leaders were being paid “significantly less” attention. Mental-health support was funded for ordinands, but not for lay staff, he said.
Archdeacon Gaze gave a warning against sharing the gospel with the only intention of church growth — “a extremely selfish reason. . . If we’re doing it because we love them . . . then that could be a whole other thing.” There was a risk that little places — like a fresh expression which she had supported, not grown, but had helped many other places — may feel like they were failing, “but they could be doing exactly what God is asking them to do.”
Noah Chamberlain (Portsmouth), one other member of the young-adults group, said that youth groups and events were “crucial, vital, paramount to the expansion of religion in young people and hence the longer term of the Church. I’d not be the person and Christian I’m today without the multi-denominational youth group that I used to be a part of.”
Clare Williams (Norwich) asked whether thought had been given to an assessment of growth across traditions, and correlating this with levels of resources given to those traditions.
Sarah Tupling (Deaf Anglicans) said that she had spoken to a mother with a deaf teenage daughter who had been unable to seek out a deaf church.
Bradley Smith (Chichester) referred to recent reports concerning the appeal of traditional worship to millennials. There were completely latest congregations of all ages for which the 1662 Prayer Book was the norm. The congregation had doubled at one church in Lincoln for the reason that Prayer Book was adopted, he said, and the young churchwarden was launching one other initiative to stress the contemporary value of traditional worship and teaching.
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